Taking a break helps in more ways than one

Going away from Delhi always gives your perspective back. It accords you that therapeutic break away from the always-on-the-run, mindless pursuits of whatever the urban jungle lulls you into believing is meaningful. Recently out on a visit to the hills to meet a doctor for an ailment per force cut me off from everything that generally occupied my days — work, television, malls and the like.

An 11-hour bus journey up into the hills, not so tedious anymore thanks to the A/C Volvos which penetrate deep into the interiors of Himachal, tells you how the true meaning of the oft poetically serenaded “sound of silence”. No sound escapes from anywhere around you which, in some way, enhances the clarity of your eardrums. The silence, accompanied by the clear skies overloaded with stars inserts peace into your system.

Really, where in Delhi can you really see the stars. It’s a magical experience, the feeling that the stars will fall into your arms anytime, the shooting stars streaking the dark skies, the moon so enlarged that you think it has been botoxed. Not white but an eerie pale yellow, beckoning you with silent appeal. You can spend hours gazing at the sky, if that is, the winter chill does not turn you into an icicle.

And in the middle of all these natural showstoppers is the sound of silence, broken only by dogs barking at any hint of a movement. That is it, nothing else goes verbal, not even people who talk only when need be. The Ayurveda doctor, who lives in these hills unknown and faceless, is a treasure trove of traditional knowledge. He not only regales you with stories of his deep forest wanderings to pick up herbs that he is convinced are more potent than any allopathy drugs, especially for chronic ailments like hypertension.

Actually, it’s quite a pleasure to hear this old man out. He tells you how there is no concept of poverty — it comes to even the richest of people who spend their all buying diamonds that go into the locker, so many clothes that go into the dark confines of closets, forgotten till someone actually pulls them out. According to him, it is the needless spends that make you pauper in your pocket but more, importantly, it is the bankruptcy of values that is now plaguing the society. Returning to medication, he said the surroundings that shape a person’s run of blood. What he meant was the tension that comes with big city dwelling is needless.

Away from the Ayurveda and its benefits is the actual living of people in these areas. It is blissfully uncomplicated and workfully healthy. A lot of physical labour by both men and women often takes care of the health issues. Add to that the purity of the food they take and you have a perfect recipe for longevity. In the area where I went, people generally live to their 90s, and without any ailments.

My 80-year-old aunt-in-law can walk faster than me and climb up the hills without a crease on her forehead or a heavy breath for that matter. Panting and puffing, I feel ashamed at what I have done to my strength quotient and wonder why we as an urban population never stop to think how badly we actually treat ourselves where the basics of life, health, happiness and peace of mind are concerned.

Talking to people so far removed from what we deem as civilisation is quite a revelation. They may not know Delhi from Mumbai but they all have heard about, for instance, Anna Hazare. They speak about corruption with first-hand knowledge. They tell you how the NREGA scheme of the Government is ridden by it because people have intrinsically become corrupt.

Apparently, there is no labour available in these villages anymore because they have all gone to work on handsome daily wages in various construction schemes under NREGA. But, some months down the line, the hapless Government has had to fix quota of cement because a huge amount was being siphoned off by these very people. Also, after a back assessment, the Government officials, villagers tell you, were stunned to find that the work force they had paid had not given even one-fourth of the output they had expected from them. So now, the wages have been linked to the amount of work done and the average has come to `50 a day! Not just that, the work is not restricted to some months and once the cement gets over, you have no more construction in the area, doesn’t matter if the road is left half constructed! That’s the infiltration of corruption for you at the aam aadmi level!

On another spectrum though, these same people also took out a candle-light procession to mark their support for Anna Hazare and his efforts to cleanse the society of the scourge of corruption!

But all these issues are sidelined if you are on a health trip. Really, the best way to calm your frayed nerves is to go up into the hills, take long walks, breathe in the freshness and the beauty of the surroundings, enjoy the uncontaminated food, the fresh veggies and long evenings sitting next to bonfires. Also, you need to bring back a piece of this nature walk back to Delhi and spend some time relating to nature — through morning walks, exercises and a little less of mall crawling perhaps!

Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, 18 December, 2011